Spanish Politician’s Photo Used for Osama Bin Laden Wanted Poster

A Spanish politician has said he was shocked to find out the FBI had used his photo for a digitally-altered image showing how Osama Bin Laden might look.

Gaspar Llamazares said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the US after his hair and parts of his face appeared on a most-wanted poster.

A photo of Bin Laden from 1998 (left) was digitally altered using elements from an image of Gaspar Llamazares (right)

He said the use of a real person for the mocked-up image was “shameless”. The FBI admitted a forensic artist had obtained certain facial features “from a photograph he found on the internet”.

The digitally-altered photos of the al-Qaeda leader, showing how he might look now, aged 52, were published on the state department’s Rewards for Justice website on Friday. Officials said they had adapted a 1998 file image to take account of a decade’s worth of ageing, and possible changes to facial hair.